>George, you hit it right on the head.
>
>** PLease excuse the ranting/venting to follow *****
< snip >

Well, since you got to do it...:-)

I wrote a very, very complex system to handle the costing aspect of our products. Prior to the system's design and implementation, it would take someone approximately an hour to process one costing estimate. The system reduced that to under two minutes. However, due to the complexities of the process and the huge number exceptions to the rules, we felt that if we could actually process around 90% of all estimates (with the remainder being done manually) that it would be acceptable. As it's turned out, the system probably handles more than 98% of all estimates.

When the system was first introduced, the people using it knew how to manually look up and figure everything out. However, over the years, one of the things that happened was that we lost control over our groups network. (This is a long story and I don't want to get into it) As a result, we now have people using the system that simply don't know how to do this manually, and don't know what to look for.

The system is rather simple to use. The user is presented a series of dialogs based on the product's routing code, checks the data, and then clicks a "Next" command button until the process is completed. If the system has a problem with any of the incoming information (sent to it from another system) or can't locate a necessary piece of information, the user is advised, and sometimes given alternate choices. Since the "great untrained mass of users" has been allowed access, I get more and more questions about various estimates, why something happened, bad outgoing data, etc., etc., etc.

Fortunately, there's hope. When the system gets moved to VFP (it's currently in FPW), the underlying data source will be changed to SQL Server. We happen to control our SQL Server< bg >. This means that no one will be allowed to use the system who hasn't been trained to do it manually. Fortunately, I have the backing of my superiors on this, and the plant manager where the application is being used can scream until he's blue in the face about it and it won't do him one bit of good.

I feel so much better now.< g >